For Immediate Release: April 27, 2021

Contact: Janelle Erickson |  jerickson@HilltopPublicSolutions.com | (310) 614-0289

Statement on the Nomination of Ed Gonzalez as ICE Director

Washington, DC – Following President Biden’s announcement that he will nominate Ed Gonzalez to lead the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, Bridgette Gomez, Campaign Director for the We Are Home Campaign issued the following statement:  

“Today’s nomination of Ed Gonzalez to lead ICE marks an important opportunity for change at the agency. ICE was at the forefront of many of Trump’s worst abuses of immigrant communities – from record-high detention numbers, to mass worksite raids, to the coercion of state and local law enforcement to carry out Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda. Mr. Gonzalez will be positioned not only to reverse the trends at ICE under Trump, but also to build a system that is fair, humane, and functional, facilitates compliance, and respects all people regardless of race, religion, or birthplace.

“We urge Mr. Gonzalez, once confirmed, to take immediate action to cut ICE detention levels and close facilities, to end the police-to-deportation pipeline, and to adopt and implement generous prosecutorial discretion guidelines to protect people from detention and deportation. These first steps will be crucial to achieve the transformation of the immigration system that all our communities deserve.”

In February, the We Are Home campaign and 100 partner organizations sent a letter to DHS Secretary Mayorkas detailing a complete set of enforcement reform recommendations to reduce the dysfunction and brutality of the immigration enforcement system. 

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The We Are Home is a nationwide campaign to fight for immigrant communities on three fronts: prioritizing and demanding a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in America; a moratorium and overhaul of interior enforcement; and broad affirmative relief from deportation. We Are Home is co-chaired by Community Change/Community Change Action; National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA)/Care in Action; Service Employees International Union (SEIU); United Farm Workers/UFW Foundation; and United We Dream.